UX ProcessOur Ballot Box (OBB) grew out of years of interviews with users, politicians, and political activists. Starting with our work creating the Logical Consensus argumentation system​​​​​, we understood how social media could be used to create not just an upgrade of an existing political activity but something entirely new.

Focusing on the goals of our users we iterated a series of design cycles based on user stories, mockups and interviews.

UI StrategyWe designed OBB from the ground up to be accessible and approachable. No shiny, no flashy, no behaviors that weren't completely predictable. For our color palette we wanted to avoid the reds and blues of partisan politics and instead went with neutral greens and greys with powder blue accents. Not too hot, not too cold. Contemporary but not pushy or hip.

Our brand was essential, we needed to be seen as a trusted but completely unbiased arbiter on political issues and we drove that point home with every part of the UI.

MyMaryland.net UI Improvements

RolesUX/UI

BriefThese are 3 sets of Before-and-After images.

Record FoundInitially we had an unintentionally exposed debug that showed the information we found from the Maryland voter registration file. Not wanting to miss an opportunity to give the users a sense of validation and accomplishment, I jazzed it up. Also tied it in with an introduction to our primary user navigation: the politician Town Hall menu bar.

RegistrationOur registration bounce rate was crazy high. I swung an unforgiving axe at every non-essential letter. Note that these images are at the exact same scale and window width.

ForumThe centerpiece of the site, the Town Halls were pretty unattractive and clunky. Fixed.

Cap Times Essays

I wrote three essays for the Cap Times

The cover story from the week of August 13, 2014, about what a contemporary city needs to be complete economically, justly, and socially:

Logical Consensus

RolesUX/UI/CEO/Cofounder

BriefLogical Consensus was initially designed to transform the political process from persuasion-based to fact-based. To create a system that will show when an idea makes sense even when it is unpopular with the very same people who power that system.

While it’s designed to work at a national or international scale, it works just as well for small groups, or even an individual that want to make a thorough and well structured assertion. It is collective intelligence for the 21st century.

Though a patent is still pending for the methodology, the startup failed to get funded. Two members of the team, including myself, went on to found Our Ballot Box.

Target UsersLC would have two distinct sister products; one designed with the full methodology for political/policy-wonks and academics, and one for the American Everyman. Only the full, wonk version was partially developed.

UX ProcessThe UX process for LC focused primarily on behavioral psychology and game theory to develop a system for smart people to prove themselves wrong when they actually were wrong.

UI StrategyThe UI was developed for the technologist super user only, with an emphasis on density of information and ease of presenting and navigating that information.

MoMA/P.S.1 URBAN BEACH

RoleAssistant Designer

BriefThe winning design for MoMA/P.S.1’s invitational Young Architects Competition, the most significant annual architectural competition, our built installation in MoMA/P.S.1 gallery courtyard served as an urban beach during the day and venue for Warm Up, a techno/electronica rave during the night.

Target Users:Hipsters. Art critics. Children.

UX ProcessWe started by analysing the users to understand all of their potential use-cases and motivations. When the problems and users were clearly defined we iterated a series of design explorations to find the right design philosophy and aesthetic to satisfy their expectations and delight.As the only team member to work on the project continuously from beginning to end I was involved in every step of the project from conception to completion.

UI strategyThe design itself was shaped by a series of experiential phrases drawing on perspective, tactility and procession. Material, colors, form and function all brought together to create a scene.

Brief:Google Advice connects you with experts on demand. Have your everyday questions answered by experts in seconds or minutes, and for peanuts. Google Advice enables people with full time jobs to make money sharing their expertise and hobbies. And freelancers to find work helping those most in need of their services. It’s the Amazon.com of the knowledge economy.

I created this concept, wireframes, user flow diagram, and walkthroughs to get the idea out for someone to build.

TechCrunch: How To Build A Revolutionary Political Social Network

University Square

RoleLead Designer​

BriefLead designer for the primary university student portions of the UW section of the University Square building on the 3rd and 4th floors and the lobby. These floors included the Student Activity Center (SAC), ASM (student government), Student Print print shop, and WSUM radio station.

Target UsersEvery variety of college student.

UX ProcessThis was a very challenging project because there were four distinct client-organizations with divergent use cases that needed to be integrated yet cohesively independent I joined the project when there was already a rough draft of the needs of the clients, which I found to be of insufficient depth to define the design challenges and opportunities. After further interviews and discussions I began a series of concept iterations to tease out and build solutions for many of the previously obfuscated problems.

UI StrategyWith 5 different areas controlled by 4 different entities the UI had to create a universal design language within which each entity could fully express its unique mission. The unifying language that I created based on the cultural and behavioral persona of the college student users was one of biting honesty, simplicity, and fun.

27Troy Cuff

​RolesDesigner/CEO

Brief27Troy Cuff is a soon-to-be-launched Kickstarter campaign to make an attractive, comfortable almost-2lbs. solid stainless steel wrist weight for building arm strength and looking badass.

UX ProcessAs a truly entrepreneurial endeavor this project was born to scratch an itch. I wanted something like this and the existing options were terrible. I began by discussing the concept and goals with friends and designers to begin validating the market while also researching the competition. Problems were defined, design solutions iterated, prototypes tested, repeat. Eventually a long series of ergonomic, behavioral, and technical problems were identified and optimally solved by the current design iteration.

UI StrategyFor commercial appeal the aesthetic is derived almost purely from functional considerations with an eye toward modern minimalism. The final product is not only attractive but will comfortably fit a huge range of wrist sizes and shapes while maximizing mass to reach the 1.5-2lb. sweet spot the existing market revealed.

Workpod

RoleDesigner

BriefWorkpod was a graduate project to design a temporary shelter product. In an attempt to pursue a novel line of questioning I narrowed the use case to a shelter product that would better enable the growing trend of working-vacations. Workpod is an all-terrain mobile workstation.

Target UsersWriters, workaholics, naturalists.

UX ProcessThe Workpod UX process was largely introspective though I did use studio-mates and the professor as focus groups for feedback on problem identification and design iterations.

UI StrategyThe user problems were ultimately solved by a pickup-truck deliverable hard-shell sleeping pod, desk and chair armature, fully configurable sun/wind/rain shades, and four legs and winches to deploy in any environment.

Portfolio Graphics

​A brief sampling of some graphic work and a broadsheet poster. Though graphic design has been an integral part of my creative process for over 10 years, up until now my personal archiving has been mostly concerned with photos, renderings, and drawings of my architectural work.

UX ProcessUsing much of the UX feedback from previous interviews and tests we learned what were the most significant points to explain and the pitfalls around each. Drafts of the video were iterated based on feedback end users.

UI strategyApart from the information requirements introductory web videos have a number of unique challenges: Interest in the subject is unusually low so the first couple of seconds are critical to draw the viewer in; they may not have functioning sound or want it; the information/interest needs to stay high, any pause will lose viewers.

BriefMy thesis project was the creation of a UX design specification for an interim Iraqi Parliament campus. At the time (2004) the US had created an interim government for Iraq, this thesis created a document of guiding design principles based on the UX of end users for an Iraqi designer to execute to make a temporary Parliament campus to help facilitate the creation of a permanent constitution.

UX ProcessThe overall project had four phases, the first three of which were UX, the last UI. The first phase of the process was the identification of the high-level sociopolitical issues in Iraq, our problem definition. The second phase identified which solutions to those sociopolitical issues had the greatest consensus. This research was done primarily through literature review, aided by some interviews. In the third phase I took the consensus sociopolitical solutions and projected them into each major programmatic function of the building to create a list of design considerations and principles for the execution of the final design. This third phase dove deeply into behavioral and environmental psychology as well as drawing on cultural norms to influence the conscious and subconscious perceptions of end users.

UI StrategyThe fourth phase of the project was to create design examples that embodied the principles of the design specification. These designs were done with very tight iteration cycles and are more to communicate the concepts of the design specification than to propose a final campus design.

Rendering/ 3D Modeling

These projects represent work for UW-Madison, Northwestern University, Bausch & Lomb, and Petronas in Kuala Lumpur.

In all cases I was part of the design team, either as lead or assistant. In all examples I led the 3d modeling, rendering, and editing.